A forest, a haunting place where young men never grow old. They stay forever as new green seedlings.

These seedlings exist in the minds of those who have lost young men to war, gang violence, and all tragedies that would steal the life of a young man before he can take root and grow into a full-grown tree.

We live in a culture where sleep is considered an incidental part of our lives.

We work until we are exhausted—we consume caffeine, energy drinks, even pharmaceuticals to keep us going until we can go no more.

We attempt to stay physically awake in order to accomplish more goals, have more experiences, cope with the insane demands of our way of life.

The consequences of avoiding sleep, intentionally or not, can actually put us to sleep in a different way, walking through the Pyramids of Somnia in a daze, a waking dream where a sandstorm may be rising to bury us as we sleepwalk.

In Greek Mythology, Tantalus (Tántalos) wasbanished to the Underworld for trying to bring the nectar of the Gods to his people.

For attempting to steal this ambrosia, he was cursed to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink.

We are tantalized by the idea of the unobtainable.

If we are tempted to reveal the secrets of the Gods, are we forever banished to reach for that which we can never have?

A condition of conflict and anxiety created by inconsistency between one’s beliefs and one’s reality. The confusion that results from holding onto beliefs which are incongruous to what we are witnessing can leave fractured truths clinging to our perceptions. The concept of the Iron Curtain existed in the twentieth century, creating devisions of economies and alliances. The remnants of that invisible Iron Curtain was psychologically dismantled with the Berlin Wall in 1989. Sometimes there is no tangible symbol to represent a curtain—especially if the curtain is actually a veil. Presently, we live in the midst of a diaphanous Golden Curtain. It represents our beliefs about Democracy, Humanity, and established social structures which we have adhered to until now. Perhaps we need to peek behind this veil to repair fractured truths and begin to dismantle the sources of our own cognizant dissonance.